Vacuum sander



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'" c; A. PRATTE Filed March 20, 1928 Feb. 26, 1929.

Patented Feb. 26, 1929.

UNITED, STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. PRATTE, OF DENVER, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR 01E ONE-HALF T CHARLESE. FULLER, JR., 0]? DENVER, COLORADO. I

VACUUM SANDER.

Application filed March 20, 1928. Serial No. 263,049.

This invention relates to improvements in vacuum sanders for locomotivesand has reference more particularly to an improvement in that type ofsander shown and described in United States Letters Patent 1,263,106,

granted to me on April 16, 1918. I

In the operation. of railway trains it is frequently necessary to employsand so as to prevent the slipping of the drivers oi the locomotives. Inorder to direct the sand into the space between the ballot the rail andthe periphery oi the driving wheels of the four on each side to a muchlarger number.

In order to properly sand the track at each wheel, it is evident thatsanders of large capacity must be employed.

It is the object of this invention to produce a sander of a novelconstruction that shall be so designedthat each sander will supply twowheels and which will therefore make it possible to properly sand alarge number of drive wheels from the same sand box or dome.

in order to most clearly describe my invention, reference will be hadfor this purpose to the accompanying drawing in which the preferredembodiment thereof has been illus- 3d, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a locomotive showing my invention appliedthereto;

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 22, Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is asection taken on line 33, Fig. 2.

In the drawing numeral 1 represents the ball of the railway rail andnumeral 2 the drivers'o; the locomotive. In the example given I haveshown tour drivers on each side. A sand pipe 8 terminates at a point ashort distance above the surfacefoi' the rail and to the front surfaceof the driver in the manner shown in the drawing. The sand is usuallycontained in a sand box or dome 4, which is located on the top of thelocomotive. This sand box is provided with a removable cover 5, throughwhich the sand is introduced. Ordinarily these sand domes or boxes havea circular cross section like that shown in Fig. 2 in which numeral 6represents the cylindrical side wall. F or the purpose of transferringsand froin the interior of the sand dome to pipes 3, I have provided amechanism which has been. illustrated in section in I 2%, and whichconsists of a pipe 7 having a shortportion 8 that extends at rightangles to the main part of the pipe and terminatesin an interiorlythreaded opening 9.- The end of section 7 also terminates in'aninteriorly threaded opening 10. A sleeve '11 has a threaded engagementat one end with the threads oi. opening 10 and extends through a hole 12in the cylindrical wall 6. Secured to the outer end of the threadedconnector 11 is an L 18. When this L is in place it serves as a clampingmeans for securing pipe 7 in place in the opening 12. A sand pipe?) isconnected to the downwardly extending opening of L 18 in the mannershownin Fig. 3. This L has an opening 14 which is in axial alignment withtheopening to which pipe 3 is connected and located within opening 1%1is a nozzle 15. This'nozzle is connected by means ofpipeslG to a valve16 that is located in the cab and which controls the flow of air throughthe pipes 16. Secured to the threads in opening 9 is a threaded sleeve17 which corresponds to sleeve 11 above referred to. An inverted bellshaped member 18 has its base provided with an opening 19 for thereception of the sleeve 17. This bell is oi such size that when itsupper surface is in contact with the lower end of part 8, the iugs 20that weird downwardly from its lower end will res upon the bottom 21.The sides of. this bell shaped member are provided with a plurality oflongitudinal slots 22. A suction head 23 is threadedly connected withthe sleeve 17 and serves to hold the inverted bell shaped member 18 inplace. The lower end of suction head 23 which has been indicated bynumeral 24, terminates a short distance above the bottommember 21. Whendry sand is put into place in the sand dome, part of this sand will flowthrough the openings 25 into'the interior of the inverted bell 18 andsand will alsoflow through the slots 22. The action of the bell shapedmember 18 is to prevent the sand from packing about the suction nozzleand'to therefore, leave it in a loose condition so that it will be morereadily entrained by the air when the device is operated.

From Fig. 2 is will be seen that the part indicated by numeral 8 in l. 3has two branches, each of which has been designated by the numeral 7 andtherefore a single suction nozzle serves for two branches and tor twosand pipes. The nozzles 15 located within each of the ifs 13 a econnected in parallel by means of a pipe 16 in the i'nanncr shown in 2.lVhen the engineer opens the valve 16 and permits air under pressure toflow through pipe 16, this will produce a stream oi air or" highvelocity the end o't each nozzle 15. .lt is veil. known that when airissues from a nozzle and is directed into an opening that partial vacuumis produced. This vacuum causes air to 'flow inr-r: 'd.y through thesuction nozzle 23 and upwardly through pipe 8, and thence through thebranch 7. This stream of air carries with it sand and this sand is thendirected downwardly through pipes 3 and is deli vs- .d onto the surfaceof the railway rail directly in front of the drivers. It is evident thatwith the construction shown, it is possible to sand a pair of driverswith each device employed an d when four sanding devices are used, eightdrivers can be talren care of. it is obvious that as a larger number ofdrivers are to be sanded, that additional sanding devices can beemployed, but as this merely a matter of duplication, the arrangementshown in this drawing and described above is considered sufficient forthe purpose of describing the op eration of the device.

I want to call particular attention to the function performed by theinverted bell shaped member 18 which serves both a support for the innerend otthe tubular member comprising parts 7 and 8, and as a means forpreventing the packing of the sand about the suction nozzle, during suchtimes as the device is in operation. Member 18 also serves to make theflow o'l sand more uniform than it would be it a large body oi sandwould be in direct contact with the suction nozzle.

'ihc idea of employing a single suction nozzle for two sand pipessin'ipliiics the arrangement and decreases the cost of construction andalso makes it possible to make provision ior a larger number of sand.pipes :trom each sand dome.

The pipes by means of which the compressed air is delivered to thenozzles 15, have all been designated by numeral 16, as they are all apart of a si' le air conduit and this designation simplifies thedescription.

From the above it will be apparent that i. have produced a simple vacuumsanding device which is especially well adapted for use on locomotiveshaving a large number of driving wheels and which is of simple andsubstantial construction and which, in addi tion, is provided with meansthat prevents the mesa-so sand from packing and thereby produces a moreuniform operation than the device shown and described in the patentabove identified.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new is:

1. A sander for locomotives comprising a branched conduit adapted toextend through the wall of a sand box, the inner ends of said branchesterminating in a downwardly extending portion whose lower end forms asuction nozzle, a bell shaped member enclosing the suction nozzle, saidmember having spaced lugs adapted to rest upon the bottom or a sand box,each of said branches having their outer ends closed and an air nozzlemounted on the outer extremity of each branch and arranged to dischargeair across the axis thereof.

2. A sander for locomotives comprising, a branched conduit, one end ofsaid branches terminating in a single tubular portion extending at rightangles to the plane. of the branches, a suction nozzle secured to theend of the tubular portion, a bell shaped guard member secured to thetubular portion and enclosing the suction nozzle said guard memberhaving its open end provided with spaced lugs adapted to rest on thebottom of a sand box, and means applied to the outer end of each branchfor producing a suction.

3. A sander tor locomotives comprising a tubular member having one endopen and the other closed, a conduit in communication with the interiorof the tubular member near its closed end, said conduit extendingsubstantially at right angles to the axis of the tubular member, suctionproducing means attached to the outer end of the conduit, a suctionnozzle secured to the open end of the tubular member, and a guard memberenclosing the suction nozzle, said guard men her having a plurality ofopenings for the entrance of sand.

4-. A sander for locomotives comprising a tubular member having one endopen an d the other closed, a plurality of conduits, each having one endin conmmnication with the interior of the tubular member near its closedend, said conduits extending substantially at right angles to the axisof the tubular member, a suction producing n'iea-ns attached to theouter end of each conduit, a suction nozzle secured to the lower end ofthe tubular member, a bell shaped guard member secured to the tubularmember and extending downwardly over the suction nozzle, and spaced lugsprojecting downwardly from the open end of the guard member.

5. A sander comprising a hollow body member consisting of a shorttubular mem ber having one end closed and the other open, a plurality ofangularly related conduits ex tending radially from the tubular membernear its closed end, the interiors of said conduits being incommunication with the interior of the tubular member, the outer ends ofeach conduit being interiorly threaded, and the open end of the tubularmember being interioriy threaded, a threaded sleeve in each conduit andin the threaded opening in the tubular member, a suction producingdevice threadedly connected with the threaded sleeve at the outer end ofeach conduit, a

suction nozzle threadedly connected with the 10 threaded sleeve in theend of the tubular member and a bell shaped guard member clamped betweenthe tubular member and the suction nozzle, said guard member beingprovided with spaced openings for the ad- 15 mission of sand.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

CHARLES A. PRATTE.

